The Importance of Interpersonal Role

Critically discuss the extent to which Fayol's classical analysis of the management function has largely been made redundant by the more recent empirical studies of what managers actually do, such as that favoured by Mintzberg.

Mintzberg, a management researcher, studied actual managers at work. He brought out 3 management roles: interpersonal roles, information roles, decisional roles. Especially interpersonal roles are quite similar as Katz’s human skills. Mintzberg’s interpersonal roles include figurehead role which is about greeting visitors, signing legal documents; leader role which is related to performing virtually all activities that involve subordinates; liaison role which is about acknowledging mail, doing external work and performing other activities that involve outside the

According to our text, Henry Mintzberg created three managerial roles. These roles include interpersonal, information, and decisions roles. The interpersonal role requires a figurehead, leader, and a liaison. Informational roles require monitor, disseminator, and a spokesperson. Or in other words, informational roles involve "collecting, receiving, and disseminating information" (Pg 11). Decision roles need an entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiators. According to Mintzberg, decisional roles should involve thinking and doing.

The aim of this essay is to investigate whether the work and skills of a manager are the same regardless of the level of their position within the organization. Through research conducted into three main theorists namely Henri Fayol, Henry Mintzberg and Robert L. Katz it is concluded that the core work functions a manager does are the same irrespective of position. The work roles in which a manager occupies within the organization are dependent upon the organization and their position within the organization. The skills that are needed by managers are universal to all managers but the composition of these skills is largely dependent upon the manager's position.

Robbins (2001) wrote, "Mintzberg (1973) concluded that managers perform 10 different, highly interrelated roles, or sets of behaviors attributable to their jobs. These 10 roles are primarily concerned with interpersonal relationships, the transfer of information, and decision-making."

The administrative management viewpoint evolved early in the 1900s and is most closely identified with Henri Fayol (1841-1925), a French industrialist. Fayol’s work, “Administration industrielle et générale (1916)”, later translated into the 1949 “General and industrial administration”, is one of the first and most widely quoted analyses on management. As a result, Fayol influenced many writers, most notably Urwick. Although, there have been many theories supporting Fayol’s ideas, but there have been many writers who have directly opposed Fayol, the most prominent one being Henry Mintzberg, who in his “The Nature of Managerial Work (1973)” regarded Fayol’s ideas as “folklore”. The aim of this essay is to evaluate the works of both Fayol and Mintzberg, discussing the pros and cons of both the theories. Moreover, the essay will depict that how Fayol has been able to withstand “the test of time” and prove that his theory cannot be termed as “folklore”.

Many organizations and establishments have philosophies in how an organization is to be functioning and which positions are necessary to execute the plan. One of the crucial positions that make the establishment function is that of a Supervisor. The term supervisor is a word with Latin roots which means “to look over,” however, a supervisor is viewed as a person who is an immediate overseer to an employee at a workplace. The supervisor is the person an employee would directly report to for any work related situation. A supervisor plays an essential part of the management team that gives an organization purpose and leadership by being responsible for employees’ progress and productivity (Bittel & Newstrom, 1992).

Interpersonal Communication is offered defined as communication between fewer people but most often just two people. Interpersonal communication should be classified by what happens during conversation and not on how many people are involved. Learning about elements and guidelines of interpersonal Communication helps to develop life skills needed to be able to communicate well with others.

The world of business has undergone radical and dramatic changes in the last decade changes that present extraordinary challenges for the contemporary manager. A manager is an organizational member who is responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities of the organization so that the goals can be achieved. According to a widely referenced study by Henry Mintzberg, managers serve three primary roles: interpersonal, informational, and decision-making. Management is process of administrating and coordinating resources effectively and efficiently in an effort to achieve the goals of the organization.

“Leader-member exchange theory maintains that communication which takes place between a superior and subordinate is critical to the growth of the organization – It positively affects the mutual relationship between the superior and subordinate” (p. 329).

Critically, an early pioneer of this managerial structure within organisations was Henri Fayol. Fayol devised a ‘common sense’ view of the managerial responsibilities

Gender: Gender can be a big hindrance to interpersonal relationship. Gender has to do with sex which is used to differentiate male from female. Differences betwen genders can result in barriers to interpersonal relationships especially in cultures where relationship between people of opposite sex are prohibited except in marriage. Some organisations even go to the extent of specifying the gender they want to work for them leading to barriers in interpersonal relationship.

Henri Fayol’s theory was almost a century old and was originally written in French. Further review on several journal articles has led to an overview background of Fayol’s working life which provided the foundation that conceptualized his theory. According to Wren (2001), Fayol was appointed as the Director in a mining company, Decazeville, where he succeeded to turnaround the company to become profitable. Fayol was the first person to classify the functions of a manager’s job. Fayol (1949; as cited in Wren, 2001) identified five key functions in managerial works.as planning, organising, command, coordination and control. Planning consists of any managerial work that involves setting goals and coordinating actions to

De Janasz, Suzanne C., Dowd, Karen O. & Schneider, Beth Z., 2002, Interpersonal Skills in Organizarions, McGraw-Hill, New York, USA

The paper will explore different theories of Management, include Henri Fayol and Henry Mintzberg. This section of this paper provides an overview of functions, roles and skills required of a manager. What is Management? Management can define as the process of reaching organisational goals by working with and through people and other organisational resources. (Management Innovation, 2008).